Rule Breaker (3)
Just before the break occurred.
Dozens of Awakeners sat in a circle, their faces grim.
They were the Cheonghwa Guild members who had been presumed annihilated after getting trapped inside the gate.
Their leader—and Korea’s top S-rank Awakener—Hwang Hee-chan opened his mouth with a heavy heart.
“...This gate raid has failed.”
His gaze swept across the group.
The massive wall surrounding them.
No, calling it a wall felt wrong. It was closer to a grotesque, pulsating lump of flesh.
His eyes burned with rage as he stared at it.
“This is largely my fault. I’m sorry.”
“This isn’t your fault, sir! If it weren’t for you….”
“No. I’m the one at fault. They call me the strongest in Korea, yet I can’t even break through a single wall like this!!!”
BOOOOM—!!!
Hwang Hee-chan slammed his fist into the wall with terrifying force. The kind of power that could turn ordinary concrete into dust.
Yet the wall didn’t even crack.
It had absorbed the entire impact by wriggling like living meat.
Or perhaps it was more than just impact.
The flesh was so tough that even swords couldn’t cut it properly. And even if you did manage to slice it, it would regenerate instantly.
It was as if the master of this labyrinth was declaring, ‘Breaking through the walls is against the rules.’
“I only planned to clear this gate and return within a single day….”
I’m sorry, young lady.
Hwang Hee-chan lowered his hand. His bulging veins pulsed violently across his trembling fist.
The sight was so heartbreaking that sympathy filled the eyes of every Awakener present.
Why does he think this is his fault?
He had done nothing wrong.
The moment they entered the gate, they had been transferred into a labyrinth—Labyrinth. The communication cables they’d brought had snapped from the sudden spatial shift. Even the guild members had been scattered across the maze.
It was a phenomenon none of them, not even the veterans, had ever experienced before. There was no way he could have been held responsible.
If he hadn’t been here, we would’ve been wiped out one by one.
On the contrary, Hwang Hee-chan had done everything possible.
Once he realized the gate’s interior was a labyrinth, he made regrouping the highest priority and moved accordingly. He abandoned all thoughts of stamina conservation, sprinting at full power to rescue the others and keep the group together. He even left markers on the floor so that anyone who crossed paths with him could follow.
The fact that the raid party had managed to reunite at all was entirely thanks to him overusing his traits to race across the maze.
“The reason we were even able to gather like this….”
“And that’s where it ends.”
But that was it.
…Just as Hwang Hee-chan had said.
After the raid party regrouped, they hadn’t encountered a single monster in the labyrinth. Their exploration had made zero progress. In the end, they had spent an entire week doing nothing but wasting food without clearing a single creature.
“How much time until the break?”
“Probably within ten minutes.”
“I see.”
Hwang Hee-chan let out a long sigh.
Then he met the eyes of his comrades. A fierce flame burned in his pupils.
“This entire labyrinth is the body of the boss monster, Labyrinth. Correct?”
“Yes!”
“We’ll be able to escape soon. The boss will head outside.”
“Which means a labyrinth will appear in Seoul. A disaster on par with the Seven Great Gates.”
“Exactly. There’s no way that man would ignore something like this.”
With the break only minutes away, Hwang Hee-chan’s lips moved.
The three syllables that had become strangely familiar over the past month.
He murmured them with absolute faith.
“Cheol-gang-min. If it’s Cheol-gang-min, he’ll know.”
Everything—from how to destroy this labyrinth to the boss’s exact location!!
Cheol-gang-min would somehow take care of it.
It was an incredibly shameless opinion.
But no one blamed him for it. Instead, they all nodded in agreement.
They, the best in the industry, knew better than anyone just how incredible Cheol-gang-min truly was.
“If we just knew the strategy, we could handle the rest ourselves.”
“So let’s pray. Pray that the guy writes a single post on the internet.”
“Isn’t that asking for too much? If this is really Seven Great Gates level, information like that would be worth trillions.”
“If you’re jealous, tell him to join Cheonghwa. I’ll even give him every last penny I’ve saved.”
“Haha! Then I’ll have to chip in a few bucks too!”
They exchanged jokes, desperately trying to raise their morale now that the break was imminent.
But their hands were still shaking.
They were supposed to be Korea’s number one guild, yet here they were, forced to rely on some anonymous stranger. It was utterly humiliating.
Even Hwang Hee-chan felt the same.
He muttered under his breath.
“We really need to recruit more information-type Awakeners… Once we get out, I’ll have to try convincing Cha Yuna one more time.”
“Sir? Did you say something?”
“Actually… Everyone, prepare yourselves!!!”
And the moment he shouted—
Shlorp—!!!
The walls that had enclosed them collapsed.
More precisely, they sank into the ground.
Everyone knew exactly what this phenomenon meant.
“It’s a break!!!”
“Run for the portal!!”
Swish—!!
Everyone sprinted forward. Not just the guild members, but every monster that had been lurking throughout the labyrinth as well.
Of course, every single member of the Cheonghwa raid party was among Korea’s absolute elite. Their speed easily outstripped the monsters’—
—Slice.
“Prioritize taking down the flying types!!”
“Every single one you miss means a hundred civilians die!!”
The flying monsters—wyverns—were few and far between, but dealing with them was the top priority.
It was only after Hwang Hee-chan and the others had slaughtered over a hundred wyverns that they finally escaped through the portal.
“We missed about twenty of them!!”
“It’s not too late!! The second we jump out, start throwing—!!”
And then—
Flash—!!!
Their bodies were swallowed by the gate’s dark light…
—and they froze.
“...Huh?”
The Awakeners, who had been ready to hurl their weapons the instant they emerged, stared in shock.
What greeted their eyes were wyverns, their bodies sliced clean in half and plummeting from the sky.
Who could have done this?
The first to realize was, naturally, Hwang Hee-chan.
He actually came in person?!
“Cheol-gang-min!!!”
He shouted the name at the top of his lungs. His voice was filled with urgency.
If he’s nearby, he’ll get caught!
At the exact same moment—
Creeeeak—!!!
Pink flesh erupted from the ground.
The boss, large enough to fill an entire super-sized gate, had finally manifested in reality.
For now it only filled a single plaza, but it would expand much further. It would devour Korea University first, then collapse every building above it. It would devour the non-Awakeners trapped inside the labyrinth. Eventually, it would cover all of Seoul.
If you get trapped inside the labyrinth, the damage will snowball during the time it takes to escape!!
“Run—!!!”
The reason Hwang Hee-chan had shouted with such a desperate expression was—
“...Huh?”
The roar that erupted at that moment was ear-splitting. The scream was so loud it felt like it might rupture eardrums. The vibration alone was enough to shake the air.
What the…
But the strangeness didn’t end there.
The grotesque walls of the labyrinth that had been spreading outward in concentric circles from the plaza suddenly stopped expanding.
They even began to writhe and squirm, as if wracked with agony.
Hwang Hee-chan couldn’t even begin to guess why.
—Slice.
Damn it, a low-level newbie is making me look bad!!
…It was all because of a certain timid, scaredy-cat man who had reflexively swung his sword. Something no one could have possibly guessed.
* * *
Creeeeak—!!
Something surged up from the ground.
A tongue?!
You know how the underside of a tongue looks kind of gross? It looked exactly like that.
Only now it was disgustingly huge and wide.
“Holy moly!!!”
I have zero tolerance for gross stuff!!!
My hand moved on pure reflex.
I could handle seeing plenty of shit, but this kind of grotesque image was a hard no.
And that wall that looked like it belonged in a gore movie—
Slice—!!
—was cut apart far too easily.
Ten Thousand Cut Sword
The blade slices through anything.
Dragon Eyes+ has activated.
Boar Labyrinth
Level: 703
Weakness: Mana Core of the main body
“...Huh?”
I’d been wondering what it was, but apparently this thing was the boss.
If it’s called Labyrinth, doesn’t that mean it’s a maze?
I rolled my eyes around.
The tall walls erected around me, now that I looked closely, could definitely pass for a labyrinth.
Thanks to that, I immediately understood the situation.
What a weird type of boss.
No matter how much you attacked these meat walls, it probably wouldn’t mean anything. The real weakness was the core. The only way to clear it would be to break through the maze, find the main body, and destroy it.
Seeing as even Hwang Hee-chan couldn’t break through, the labyrinth itself must have some kind of trick built into it.
There might be even more gimmicks, but…
Well, that wasn’t my problem.
All I had to do was carve a path.
There are probably a lot of other people caught up in this, so I’m going full hardcore mode!!
“Hup!!”
I readjusted my grip on the sword and took a deep breath.
The pattern on my forearm blazed a vivid red.
It was the 3rd-tier stigmata, Blood Explosion.
“—Blood Explosion!”
Crunch—!!!
Power instantly flooded my entire body. I could feel my stats rising in proportion to the self-inflicted damage. At the same time, pain washed over me, but it was nothing more than a mild muscle ache in my legs. A thirty-second break sitting down would fix it right up.
And it won’t even take thirty seconds to finish this thing off.
“Trait reinforcement swap—Ten Thousand Cut Sword!”
Shiiiing—!!!
I swung the blade immediately.
There was no way a mere 700-level boss could stop a sword that could even cut through the dimensional wall inside the Tower.
It sliced through like soft tofu.
—Slice.
[GRHAAAAAAHHH!!!!]
Ugh, so loud.
The boss screamed, but I ignored it and drew a circle with my blade.
A gaping hole opened in the disgusting wall.
Dragon Eyes has activated.
The main body is in that direction!
“Hup!!”
I could even sense the rough location of the main body.
I charged straight toward it.
I carved a round hole, shoulder-checked it open, then repeated the process—cutting through wall after wall.
This really is pretty brutish.
Anyway, I smashed everything in my path and kept advancing.
If the gallery saw me clearing a labyrinth like this, they’d probably scream, ‘Kyaaaack!! This isn’t the smart Cheol-gang-min we know!!!’
Still, this is the fastest way… Oh.
After cutting through dozens of walls, I finally sensed a presence.
I immediately stopped my stray thoughts.
The boss was right behind this wall.
Dragon Eyes screamed that fact at me.
You ruined my appetite, so take responsibility and die!!
“Hup!!!”
I swung my sword without hesitation.
The Moonlight Sword, a Unique-grade weapon, delivered a satisfying cut. On top of that, the increased attack range from my trait reinforcement allowed the slash to glide smoothly through the unusually thick wall…
—Riiip!!
With a crisp sound like slicing through meat, the scene inside came into view.
—I froze.
Huh?
The sight inside was far beyond anything I had expected.
“Ugh…!! Hic, ughhh!!!”
“...?”
Why is Senior Yuna here?